The aim of the project is the creation of an open-source technological platform capable of supporting general practitioners (GP) in the formulation of an initial diagnosis to patients suspected of a Covid-19 infection through the periodic analysis of information relating to the patients (such as symptoms, location data, etc.), collected through the use of functions accessible via the web and mobile apps and presented to the GP, as well as to the other stakeholders of the healthcare system concerned, in dashboards built for risk assessment.

The objective of the platform is to provide valid support mainly to GPs, but in general to all the actors involved in the fight against the current Covid-19 pandemic, through the monitoring, management and retrieval of relevant information in a coordinated and efficient manner, in order to allow effective action to limit unnecessary contacts between patients and doctors, to coordinate actions and to have a precise picture of the contagion situation. The main features of the platform concern its scalability, in order to be easily usable in different operational contexts, and the simplicity of use, a fundamental requirement to favour its immediate adoption by all citizens and doctors without the need for intense phases. training.

In this regard, the platform aims to offer the following main features, identified on the basis of the needs analyzed during the evolution of the pandemic:

• the insertion by the patients of symptoms and current drug history, with the production of a risk “score”;
• monitoring of symptoms, through the automatic or manual entry of parameters;
• medical-assisted television through interaction in audio/video mode;
• georeferencing and tracking of clients through the smartphone;
• the availability of a dashboard for doctors with a proposal for the risk assessment of patients;
• the production of epidemiological statistics.

The platform, based on widespread technologies, will be able to facilitate the consultation of contents on both fixed and mobile devices. Both a web application and appropriate mobile apps will therefore be implemented, allowing easy use of the platform’s functions through any device (PC, tablet, mobile phone) and any operating system with a browser.

The project plans to equip, in the shortest possible time, the platform with two additional particularly innovative functionalities, already tested in other realities: a reasoning module for the detection of criticalities and a semi-assisted automatic sampling system of clinical parameters.
The reasoner allows, within the limits of the reliability allowed by the data and their quality, to apply in a structured manner a series of rules dictated by the official guidelines and a series of methodologies for correlating the data to the database of the platform, to obtain possible “Score” for each patient so that they can be managed on the basis of predefined protocols and with priority techniques presented to the doctor, who will manage the possible taking in charge.

The system for the automatic collection of biomedical parameters allows to take, in a semi-automatic or completely automatic way, the values of the biomedical parameters through wearable and/or easy-to-use devices. In particular, the platform provides for the insertion of a series of parameters in self-measurement, with particular reference to temperature, pressure and – where possible – the level of oxygen saturation.
The output of the project consists of a technological platform designed to facilitate the telematic interaction between patients and general practitioners, as well as offering functionality to the health care actors involved in the care process for statistical data analysis.

Applicant: Department of Engineering, ICT, and Technologies for Energy and Transport (DIITET)

Institutes involved: Institute of Biostructures and Bioimaging (IBB Branch of Naples) and Institute of Computing and High Performance Networks (ICAR Branch of Naples)

Financing Organization: POR FESR CAMPANIA 2014-2020- O.S. 1.3 – ACTION 1.3.1. DG 50. 10 – Public Notice for the acquisition of expressions of interest for the implementation of research and development services for the fight against Covid-19 (DGR n.140 of March 17, 2020) – Axis I, Urgent measures on the subject of containment and management of the epidemiological emergency from COVID-20

Total cost: € 150,000

Total funding: € 150,000 (financing percentage: 100%)

Application area: eHealth

Start date: April 2020

End date: December 2020